Kindling-chopper



Patented Jan. 4, 1921.

PATENT OFFICE.

GEORGE M. DUDLEY, OF TACOMA, WASHINGTON.

KINDLING-CHOPPER.

Specification of Letters Patent.

Patented Jan. 4, 1921.

Application filed November 13, 1919. Serial No. 337,782.

To all whom it may concern:

Be it known that I, GEORGE M. DUDLEY, a citizen of the Unitec States of America, residing at Tacoma, in the county of Pierce and State of Washington, have invented new and useful Improvements in Kindling- Choppers, of which the following is a specification. Y

The object of the invention is to provide a simple and efiicient tool for household and similar use for producing kindling from fagots without resorting to the comparatively tedious use of a hatchet as in the ordinary practice and of such a form as to adapt it to split a stick or fagot into a number of small, readily ignitible pieces at a single stroke, and to this end the same consists in a construction and combination of parts of which a preferred embodiment is shown in the accompanying drawing, wherein:

Figure l is a sectional view of the same taken longitudinally of the handle.

Fig. 2 is a section on the plane indicated by the line 2-2 of Fig. 1.

Fig. 3 is a plan view.

The head of the tool consists of a bounding frame spanned by a plurality of intersecting webs l1 and 12, preferably corresponding in depth with the frame and reduced at their lower edges to form knives or cutters 13 arranged in a common transverse or horizontal plane, the space bounded by the frame of the head thus being divided into a plurality of open ended passages 14:

of which the walls are upwardly divergent to space the upper edges thereof farther apart than the lower or cutting edges as will be obvious by reference to the drawing. The head is provided with a suitable socket 15 adapted to receive the end of a suitable handle 16.

In operation the head is placed upon the end of a stick or fagot and driven longitudinally thereof either by impact on the other end of the stick or fagot or by utilizing the head in the same way as a hatchet head is used in a splitting operation, and as a result the stick or fagot is divided according to the intervals between the intersecting cutting or knife edges into a plurality of small kindling sticks which may be readily ignited by a match or by the use of paper or the equivalent thereof.

In other words in the use of a tool such as described a stick or fagot may be divided into a number of kindling sections at a single blow or stroke as distinguished from the operation necessary by the use of a hatchet or ax where a single stroke produces a cut in only one direction or a division of a stick or block into two parts.

What is claimed is:

1. A kindling chopper having a head pro vided with a plurality of intersecting blades arranged to bound spaces which are trans versely expanded progressively in a direction receding from the cutting edges of said blades.

2. A kindling chopper having a head consisting of a plurality of intersecting webs having cutting edges arranged in a common plane and disposed to form independent passages of which the walls diverge as they recede from the cutting edges.

3. A kindling chopper having a head consisting of a bounding wall inclosing a space spanned by webs disposed in intersecting planes and provided at one face of the head with reduced cutting edges, the spaces between the webs being progressively enlarged as they recede from the plane of the cutting edges.

In testimony whereof he atfixes his signature.

GEORGE M. DUDLEY. 

